There are normally two rangers based on the island whose jobs include wildlife management and sea bird monitoring, maintaining walking tracks and infrastructure, and tourism management during the busy summer period.

There have been a number of feral pest management programs undertaken on Macquarie Island over recent years, including weka and feral cats. One of the most significant has been the Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Program or MIPEP. Completed in April 2014, MIPEP successfully resulted in the complete eradication of rats, rabbits and mice. The project comprised of an extensive aerial baiting component, followed up by a further period of intensive on ground trapping and detection work by ground teams of hunters and specially trained detector dogs that. The aerial phase of the project was completed in July 2011. The last rabbit was recorded in November of that year, and after three years of intensive follow up work, the island was declared pest free.